[RE] Roleplay Recap: Week 9
Lafiel
Having rescued the viera, Belthan Temnt, from exhaustion and overwhelming injury in the middle of the Twelveswood, Lafiel found her errant charge wandering the footpaths of Gridania. He shared with her his intent to meet with a client of his employers, but that the man was traveling with some unknown mercenaries. She traveled once more to Thanalan to play the part of the minstrel and entertainer, a soothing backdrop of music for Belthan’s employer as he met with these mercenaries, this Vanguard Company.
There was more to Lafiel’s assignment than music, though. She was to assess and gather as much knowledge about the members of the Vanguard to report back to Belthan. As the meeting she listened to had it, Belthan would be assigned to this troupe to help them in — of all things — a bank heist of a magical edifice where the employer had a bunch of magical artifacts of his own stowed, his “gear” as he called it. All of this was in compensation, because the Vanguard was desperate for the man’s help in order to fight against the mysterious entity they would only name as Rihad.
Desperate enough to commit a major crime, it seemed. Desperation that didn’t seem to bode well for Belthan.
Some days afterward, Lafiel left to travel across Coerthas with her bodyguard and paramour, Koh’li Nbolo. Their journey was largely uneventful, the two of them simply enjoying the time spent together. However, as they neared the Observatorium they came across a young lamplighter who beseeched them to carry a message to his father in Camp Dragonshead. When they asked why he simply didn’t send a letter, he said that the courier had disappeared some suns before. He was supposed to have gone looking for her, but he shirked the duty and shamed himself and his House in doing so. The pair promised that they would deliver his message to Camp Dragonshead, but that was all.
They continued their trek onward to the Observatorium where they paused long enough to warm up and have a warm drink. The barkeep was intensely curious about the pair, watching them an unhealthy amount in a tavern full of patrons. It unnerved Lafiel, which Koh’li was keen enough to pick up on. It worried him, given that Lafiel was not a creature prone to nerves, given her history as a performer. He made her the offer to stay in the Observatorium or to press onward to Camp Dragonshead. Lafiel took the latter, the scrutiny of the barkeep was unsettled her.
Along the road to the winter fortress, Lafiel happened to catch sight of a trio of Temple Knights standing over a body: a young woman, seemingly frozen to death and missing a limb. She somehow knew it was the missing courier. It wouldn’t bode well for the lamplighter or his situation with his father once word got back.
Still, even that bit of revelation couldn’t keep Lafiel’s nerves in check. She was hypervigilant on the road, to the point that even Koh’li heightened his own wariness. Seeing her so unsettled made the gunbreaker more nervous than any of the battles he’d been in. Lafiel was unflappable, her sunny nature oftentimes the things that calmed others, so he did his best to be a strong, reliable presence through her uncertainty.
Once they reached the safety of the Camp, Lafiel seemed to calm some as they tucked into a rented room. Yet, once there, Lafiel seemingly had some secrets of her own to share…
